


The Winter Soldier and The Captain

by minty_stripes



Series: Across All Universes [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: AU, Blood, M/M, Manipulation, mentioned past torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 10:55:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2579009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minty_stripes/pseuds/minty_stripes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winter Soldier is waiting.  He is reading through his mission file.  He does not know what he is waiting for.  He closes the file and hands it back to the handler closest to him.<br/>“Is Steve coming?”  He still does not know why he asks the question.  He still does not know who Steve is.  But he knows it is important.<br/>“Yes.”</p><p>AU in which Hydra finds Steve, and The Winter Soldier and The Captain become a legendary pair of assassins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Winter Soldier and The Captain

**Author's Note:**

> basically, I can't stop writing painful Winter Soldier fic at 1am.

He was cold.  So cold.  But he was always cold these days.  He stretched muscles he didn’t remember he had, and listened to the soft whirring of his mechanical arm.  One of the handlers held out a folder, and he took it in his flesh and blood hand, opening it to read quickly through the mission parameters.

“Is Steve coming?”  He asked.  He had no idea who Steve was.  He didn’t know why this _Steve_ would come with him.  He didn’t know why he kept asking, but he did.  His handler shook his head.

“No.  You must handle this alone.”  He nodded, closing the file and standing from the chair where he had been defrosted.  The group of four handlers in the room stepped back for the Winter Soldier to put on his gear.

O.O

                The next time he was unfrozen, he was handed another file, and got to work reading it.  When he was finished, he asked the question again.

“Is Steve coming?”  His handler shook his head.

“Not this time.  You need to do this alone.”  He nods, pulls on his gear, and leaves.

O.O

                When he wakes up again, his handlers are talking, whispering.  They think he can’t hear.

“They’ve picked up a signal from Schmidt’s plane.”

“After seven years?”

“Yes, they’re sending a team.”

“Is Steve coming?”  His handlers stop whispering quickly.

“No.  Maybe someday soon.  Gear up.”

O.O

`               Steve is dreaming.  Dreaming of a lost time.  Dreams of The Commandos and of cold nights in Brooklyn with Bucky, tucked into his larger frame and shivering in an apartment with no heat.  Shivering.  He’s so cold.  So.  Fucking.  Cold.  He’s shivering.  He hasn’t moved in so long.  But he can’t stop shivering.  His lungs can’t fill enough.  He gasps and cries out for Bucky and tries to draw breath but there isn’t enough air in the world.  He reaches out and grabs the person closest to him, pulling them towards him.  His eyes won’t open but he knows this person is wrong.  This isn’t Bucky.  His eyes won’t open, a jolt runs through his entire body.  An unfair jolt, it’s too strong, it’s too sudden, it’s not stopping.  He opens his mouth and screams.

                The Winter Soldier is awake.  His handlers are whispering again.

“They found him?”

“In the North Atlantic.  They’re defrosting him now, they don’t even know if he’s still alive yet.”

“Is Steve coming?”  His handlers turn to him.  One of them hands him another folder.  He doesn’t open it.  “Is Steve coming?”

“No.  Get going.”  He nods and takes a step across the room.  A scream, loud and panicked and completely ripping the Winter Soldier apart comes from a room down the hall.  He’s running for the source of the screaming before his handlers can stop him.  There’s a man on a table not unlike the one he wakes up on.  He’s screaming and screaming and shivering and his eyes are closed tight against the world.

“Steve.”

O.O

                The Winter Soldier is waiting.  He is reading through his mission file.  He does not know what he is waiting for.  He closes the file and hands it back to the handler closest to him.

“Is Steve coming?”  He still does not know why he asks the question.  He still does not know who Steve is.  But he knows it is important.

“Yes.” One of the handlers replies.  He knows that is not the normal answer, but something inside of him warms at the thought of Steve finally coming with him.  A tall, muscular man with blonde hair and bright blue eyes steps into the room.  He is dressed in the same leathers as the Winter Soldier, the same weapons strapped to his legs and his belt.  He has a shield though.  A matte black shield is strapped to his back.  He seems to recognize the Winter Soldier.  He opens his mouth to speak but one of his handlers snaps his mask into place and then he cannot speak.  The Winter Soldier waits while his own mask is snapped into place.  He and the other man leave the base together.

O.O

                The Winter Soldier stops asking the question.  He doesn’t have to anymore.  The blonde man comes with him on all of his missions.  He doesn’t know what to call him.  The blonde man calls him ‘Winter’ when he has to talk to him, and The Winter Soldier calls the man ‘Captain’ for lack of a better name. 

O.O

They’re on a mission in Spain when Winter looks over at Captain and sees someone else.  A small, thin boy who wheezes at night as he breathes, curled into him and scowls at him fondly.  He blinks and the small boy is gone, replaced by the large, strong man who breathes shallowly and evenly at night, lying on his bed roll as if frozen in time and only looks at Winter if it’s necessary.  Winter doesn’t tell him, but rolls over on his bed roll so he’s facing away from Captain, and goes back to sleep.

In the morning, Captain was staring at Winter strangely.  Winter stared back.

“ _What?”_ He asked in cold Russian.  Captain frowned at him.

 _“Nothing.  Get your ugly mug out of my face.”_ He shot back.  Winter didn’t know why that wasn’t offensive but it wasn’t, in fact, he felt a small smile stretching across his lips.  Captain shoved him gently, a small smile growing on his face as well.  _“Not funny Winter.”_

 _“Very funny, Cap.”_ Winter shoves him back, and Captain waves a hand at him in dismissal, picking up his belt and begins to get dressed.  Winter turns around and starts gearing up for the day.

O.O

                They’ve just finished an assignment in Italy when Captain pulls off Winter’s mask and just stares at him.  Winter almost shouts at him, but then he reaches forward and pulls off Captain’s mask as well.  They stand in a back alley, covered in blood, gunpowder residue built up under their fingernails, and just stare at each other.  When Captain finally speaks, it’s in harsh English.

“I know you.”

“ _Of course you do dumbass.  We do this a lot.”_ Captain punches him lightly in the chest, just managing to knock him slightly off balance.

“ _That’s not what I mean.”_ He’s back to Russian, and Winter realizes that he had understood the English, that it had even felt familiar.

 _“Then what the hell do you mean Captain?”_ He barks back.  Captain frowns at him and takes his mask back from where Winter has been clutching it tightly in his right hand, and hooks it back into place.

 _“Get back to base.”_ Captain scowls at him.  Winter catches the mask that Captain throws back at him and reluctantly snaps it back into place.  It’s a long, surly, uncomfortable trek to their pickup point, and their handlers separate them the second they have them back.

O.O

                They’re waiting for pickup after a job in Poland.  Captain has two bullets buried in his stomach and Winter would be missing his left arm if it had been flesh in the first place.  He’s trying to stop the bleeding from Captain’s stomach.

_“Hold still.”_

_“Why don’t you just work faster?”_

_“One of these days, I’ll be the one to shoot you Stevie.”_ Winter and Captain both freeze.  Winter’s hands on Captain’s stomach still, and Captain looks up at Winter with curious, almost panicked blue eyes.

_“What did you call me?”_

“Stevie.  I don’t know why.”  The English comes naturally, as if the name _Stevie_ isn’t made for any other language.  Captain frowns.

“That feels right.”  He is still staring at Winter, and Winter finally meets his eyes.

“Stevie.”

“Buck.”  Winter’s pupils dilate as if he’s just realized something life-changing, which really, he has.

“That fits.”

“I know.”  They stare at each other for a long moment before Captain is pulling Winter down, their lips crashing together in a storm of pain and confusion and half-formed fragments of memory.  They separate quickly, Captain’s gunshot wounds taking precedence over whatever they’ve just realized.

O.O

                The woman looks to be in her late forties.  She has curly brown hair and dark red lips and holds herself with such confidence that Captain feels like he needs to stand up straight and listen to what she has to say.  He shakes his head and backs away from the scope.  Winter settles back behind the sniper rifle, watching the movements of the woman as she walks to work.

 _“I don’t think she’s supposed to die.”_ Captain protests.  Winter scoffs at him, sparing him a disbelieving glance before turning back to the scope.

_“She’s on the list.”_

_“But she’s not supposed to die.”_

_“What?  You want me to shoot her in the leg instead?  Waste a mission, waste a cover, explain why we didn’t finish the mission?  Do you want to be reoriented for this?”_ Captain shakes his head immediately, the word _reorient_ bringing up fragments of memory, fragments consisting only of pain and blood and too much screaming.

 _“I just know she isn’t supposed to die.”_ Winter backs away from the rifle to assess Captain.  He looks earnest, confused, determined, sure.  He nods.

 _“Fine.”_ He goes back to the rifle and takes the shot.  He hits her in the stomach, a half inch away from anything truly vital, and they watch as the people around her rush forward to help.  Someone runs to call for an ambulance.  Winter turns back to Captain, who pulls him into a crushing hug.

“Thank you.”

O.O

                Their handlers are whispering again.  Winter is sitting on the table, pretending he isn’t listening to the conversation in the hall.  On the table next to him, two men are slowly bringing Captain back to the world of the conscious.

“They’ve grown attached to each other.”

“They were attached before, it’s completely normal.”

“They’ve been disobeying orders for each other, they have to be stopped.”

“Do you want them back on solo missions?  Do you think that’s safe?”

“Not anymore, we need to do something though.  They need to know that disobeying orders will not be tolerated.”

“The next time it happens, make them watch the other be reoriented.”  Winter can hear the twisted smile in the man’s tone.

“That could work.  Disobedience harms the other; that could work very well.”

                Captain wakes up.  Winter is sitting on the table next to him.  He’s making that face he makes when he’s eavesdropping, brows barely furrowed, eyes narrowed so slightly it’s practically not noticeable, but Captain notices, he always does.  Winter catches him staring, and widens his eyes a fraction of an inch, inclining his head towards him just enough for Captain to catch his meaning.  Winter will explain later.

O.O

                They are bathing in blood.  Captain does not think he has ever seen this much blood in his life.  He can’t seem to stop himself as he slices into the throat of one of the handlers with a thin wire.  Across the room, Winter snaps the neck of one of the scientists and throws the limp body at a soldier.  They are fighting their way free, viciously and with blood coating their skin and unease running up their spines, but they are fighting and they are fighting together.  They have finally found the enemy.

O.O

                They are kissing with blood fresh on their lips as they leave bloody footprints in the snow.  They can’t seem to care.  Captain has a knife in his thigh, and Winter is missing a large portion of one ear, they are both bruised and swollen and limping, missing teeth and split lips and mouths full of blood, but they don’t care.  They are together and they are free and they have names again.

“Hey Stevie,” Winter begins.  Captain pulls away to watch his face.

“Yeah Buck?”

“Let’s go home.”


End file.
